As methods of inferring a user's intent in device manipulation, conventionally, a method of inferring the intent by utilizing a manipulation history of the user, a method of inferring the intent by utilizing the behavior and state of the user, and the like are known.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a device function executing apparatus which utilizes a manipulation history of the user. This function executing apparatus operates based on the premise that a function which is performed immediately after a wrong manipulation is highly likely to be the function which the user tried to execute upon the wrong manipulation. The function executing apparatus includes a wrong manipulation chronicling section which stores information such as the substance of wrong manipulations, the number of instances of wrong manipulations, functions which were executed immediately after the wrong manipulations, and the like. When a user performs a wrong manipulation, the function executing apparatus reads from the wrong manipulation chronicling section a function which was executed immediately after the wrong manipulation, and, on behalf of the user, executes it as the function which the user intended to execute. With such an operation of the apparatus, as for the wrong manipulations which each individual user is liable to perform, the user is freed from the task of correcting the wrong manipulation.
On the other hand, Patent Document 2, for example, discloses a control apparatus for automobiles which infers a user's intent by utilizing the behavior and state of the user. An intent determination section which is incorporated in this control apparatus for automobiles includes means for storing information indicating correlations between the actions/status of a user that can be acquired by using a camera or a microphone and the user's intents. The stored information is a table composed of a plurality of first entries indicating the actions/status of the user and a plurality of second entries indicating the user's intents, and the degree of correlation between each first entry and each second entry is indicated by a numerical value. As the numerical value becomes greater, a higher priority level is prescribed. By inferring intent based on this information, it is possible to infer the user's intent from the actions/status of the user, even if the user does not perform a manipulation of executing the function. Because of the ability to make intent inferences from a plurality of pieces of information, an autonomous manner of function control is provided.
Furthermore, Patent Document 2 discloses, when the autonomous function control fails to properly operate, changing a weighting in order to change its priority level, by utilizing a cancellation manipulation by the user.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-149460
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-352732